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Trump Lawyers Sanctioned for Filing ‘Frivolous’ Lawsuit Against Hillary Clinton
Federal judge fines lawyers for former president $50,000 for showing a ‘cavalier attitude towards facts’
Alina Habba, with Peter Ticktin, led a group of lawyers for former President Donald Trump in a case dismissed in September.
By Jan Wolfe
Updated Nov. 10, 2022 7:26 pm ET
A federal judge in Florida has imposed monetary sanctions on a team of former President Donald Trump’s lawyers, castigating them for filing a “frivolous” lawsuit earlier this year against Hillary Clinton and other Democrats.
In a scathing decision, U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks said a group of lawyers for Mr. Trump, led by Alina Habba and Peter Ticktin, showed a “cavalier attitude towards facts” throughout the brief history of the case.
The judge, who dismissed the case in September, ordered the Trump lawyers Thursday to pay a combined $50,000 penalty to the court and to reimburse a public-relations executive, Charles Dolan, for approximately $16,200 he spent defending himself in the litigation.
After the dismissal, Mr. Dolan asked Judge Middlebrooks to consider invoking civil-procedures Rule 11, which allows judges to impose financial penalties on lawyers who bring frivolous lawsuits.
“It should be no surprise that we will be appealing this decision,” Ms. Habba said.
In a statement Friday, Mr. Ticktin said: “We attempted to right a wrong, and our reward is a kick in the teeth. Ultimately, this will be decided by a panel of three judges of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, as we believe that the dismissal and the sanctions which followed will ultimately be reversed.”
Mr. Dolan was one of more than 30 defendants named in Mr. Trump’s lawsuit, which alleged a vast conspiracy to rig the 2016 presidential election by accusing the Republican candidate of colluding with Russia.
The defendants in Mr. Trump’s lawsuit also included Mrs. Clinton, former FBI Director James Comey, Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) and former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, the author of a since-discredited dossier leaked in early 2017 claiming that then-President-elect Trump had conspired with Russia to steer the U.S. election.
Mr. Trump’s lawsuit called Mr. Dolan “an individual with intimate ties to the Clinton Campaign.” But Judge Middlebrooks said in Thursday’s order that Mr. Trump’s lawsuit was rife with false claims about Mr. Dolan, including his state of residence and the extent of his ties to Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Trump’s lawyers doubled down on the false allegations, the judge added, even after being presented with evidence to the contrary.
“This was a shotgun lawsuit,” Judge Middlebrooks, who was appointed to the bench by former President Bill Clinton, said in Thursday’s ruling. “Thirty-one individuals and organizations were summoned to court, forced to hire lawyers to defend against frivolous claims. The only common thread against them was Mr. Trump’s animus.” |
